The Greek Community of Toronto Department of Social Services started out as a Social Services Centre in January 1977. Its first office, a store-front walk-in, was located at 756 Pape avenue, where three staff members and a handful of volunteers served 21 clients in the first month of its operation. Three decades later, the Department currently employs eight full-time workers and three part-time staff persons who serve over 10,000 clients a year.
The Department is funded by individual and corporate donors, all three levels of Government and the United Way. Volunteers and staff provide a wide variety of services in both Greek and English to the public.
The association, will provide members of the Greek Community access to legal information, brief advice and referrals in a linguistically and culturally sensitive environment. Services offered include:family; wills and estates; landlords and tenant advice; personal injury,criminal; pensions/benefits; debtor-creditor issues; bankruptcy/insolvency;civil and commercial issues; and notary public. It will be held once a month (Saturday) 10:00 am - 2:00 p.m., hosted by the Greek Community of Toronto Department of Social Services and staffed by volunteer lawyers from the Hellenic Canadian Lawyers’ Association. Individuals will have the opportunity to speak to a lawyer for 30 minutes and receive the following assistance:
- Help identify their legal problem or potential legal problems
- Provide information about their legal rights and what options they have to enforce those rights
- Provide information about available legal resources
- Provide referrals to organizations or lawyers that may able to assist them further.
- Help in drafting legal correspondence and commissioning legal documents, provided that there is enough time for the lawyer to review the issue properly
